Journal of Andrology Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on the Epididymis
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Published-Ahead-of-Print July 14, 2011
Journal of Andrology 2011, DOI:10.2164/jandrol.111.013458

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The Effects of Low-Level Laser Light Exposure on Sperm Motion Characteristics and DNA Damage

Ross Firestone , Navid Esfandiari , Sergey I. Moskovtsev , Eliezer Burstein , German T. Videna , Clifford Librach , Yaakov Bentov , and Robert F. Casper *

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: casper{at}lunenfeld.ca.

Objective: To determine the effects of low-level laser light exposure on the motility of spermatozoa and on DNA damage. Methods: Thirty-three semen samples were collected for routine analysis and were classified as normospermic, oligospermic, or asthenospermic. After routine semen analysis was performed residual semen was divided into treated and control aliquots. Treated samples were exposed to a 30 second infrared laser pulse of 50 mW/cm2 at 905 nm, a wavelength thought to increase light sensitive cytochrome c oxidase in the mitochondrial electron transport chain. Samples were then incubated at 37°C and aliquots analyzed at 30 minutes and 2 hours using Computer Assisted Semen Analysis (CASA). After incubation, 250 µL of each sample was frozen at -80°C until DNA fragmentation analysis by flow cytometry. Results: A significant increase in motility, most prominent in oligospermic and asthenospermic samples (85% increase), was observed 30 minutes after the treatment (p<0.0001). No significant increase in DNA damage compared to control samples was observed. Significant changes in sperm motion kinetics were observed. Conclusions: Low-level laser light exposure appears to have a positive short-term effect on the motility of the treated spermatozoa and did not cause any increase in DNA damage measured at 2 hours. We conclude that some cases of asthenospermia may be related to mitochondrial dysfunction. The implications of this study in terms of future clinical applications needs further investigation.


Key words: Assisted reproduction • ICSI • Semen Analysis • Sperm • laser






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